Mark Meredith, the one-time baby-faced reporter who grew into a serious player at KDVR-Channel 31, leaves the station Aug. 20 for a reporting job in Washington, D.C. He can’t disclose where he’ll land for a couple of weeks but says D.C. has always been his goal.

Teasing him about looking underage was always fun, but his reporting was never anything but mature and professional.

“I moved here in 2012 and covered Aurora, the fires, Ridgeway. You name it. I may have been young when I got here, but I certainly feel like I became the newsman I’ve always hoped to be,” he said.

“I have decided to do some other things in my life,” Maroney said. Among them: think back on his 48-year broadcast career and do some writing about it, also possibly filmmaking. He won’t leave Denver or his Stapleton neighborhood.

“I have lots of things to figure out before I go, not the least of which is May sweeps. It’s been a great run here (five years) and in the career,” for the last 15 years of which he has been managing stations.

She calls it “perfect timing.” With three kids at home (13, 10 and 8) and a co-anchor set to retire in March 2013, Fox31’s Libby Weaver will end her run as half of Denver’s longest-lasting late news anchor team “at the top of my game and on my terms.”

Her last day will be Dec. 13.

The down-to-earth anchor, 45, spoke frankly about her decision, which the station confirmed this week. The conflicting demands of being a mother and newscaster have created angst, she said, culminating in an “epiphany” some eight months ago when two of her kids were in tears, desperate for homework help, and she was running out the door after a hasty dinner to go back to work. “I thought, “what am I doing?””

“You cannot do it all,” she concluded. “I think I surprised them (KDVR management)” when she broke the news.

Why should residents of Colorado escape the humiliation that accompanies an appearance in “Judge Judy’s” court?

This week, Thursday (April 26) at 4:30 p.m. on Channel 31, Judge Sheindlin hears the case of plaintiffs Greg Peterson and his wife Sherrie Peterson of Aurora, who are suing their former friend, Donald Zisch of Lakewood, for not returning their property.

Zisch claims that the plaintiffs are not entitled to anything and is counter-suing them for unpaid rent and money he loaned him.

It gets messier from there, of course. Dogs, gerbils, interrupted Broncos, a texting war and lost belongings figure prominently.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.